Through the years, Rod Smith has given a speech to many an NFL hopeful. It's the one about opportunity knocking, just not at everybody's house.

"I always told guys, you can be inside the walls, working, playing, doing everything you can do to be in the NFL," Smith said. "Or you can be outside, wondering what happened. That's it. There's no middle.

"And there are always way more guys who want the job than can do the job. That's why they cut more guys than they keep, and why, every day, you should be doing whatever you can so they keep you."

The Broncos will make plenty of those decisions as the team trims the roster to 53 players by 7 p.m. Friday. Added with Monday's cuts, it will mean the Broncos, and 31 other teams in the league, will have gone from 90 players each to 53 each in a five-day span.

First-year coordinator Jack Del Rio will take a hands-on approach to how the Broncos' defense looks and plays this season. "I'm always pulling hard for the defense," Del Rio says of roster cuts. John Leyba, The Denver Post

In short, 1,184 players, with far more dreams, expectations and wishes, will have been sent on their way in a five-day span. All in the name of, as Broncos coach John Fox put it, "getting the absolute best 53 you possibly can."

To do that, the Broncos turn on the microscope and never turn it off.

"We're constantly going over guys' evaluations, grades, production, whether it's practice, scrimmages, whether it's games," Fox said. "We rank them positionally, we're always ranking them. And it's not all in one game, not all in one practice, but it is all in one offseason."

Under the football regime at Dove Valley headed by executive vice president of football operations John Elway and Fox, Elway has the final call on the roster spots. But there is a little more democracy in action these days than in previous years.

Elway has talked of the importance "of everyone having a voice," so the Broncos' position coaches, as well as offensive coordinator Mike McCoy and defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio, are given the opportunity to go to bat for the players they'd like.

The coaching and personnel staffs, including Elway, director of player personnel Matt Russell and pro personnel director Keith Kidd, meet nightly about the roster in training camp and the preseason with everyone involved usually having viewed that particular day's practice video.

"I'm always pulling hard for the defense," Del Rio said.

"We're all selfish in a way — offense, defense and special teams," McCoy said. "We all want as many guys as we can have, but we all understand, it's about the team as well. I can have all the receivers, the tight ends and the running backs I could possibly want, but that's not the best thing for the whole picture. And when you make the 53, it's about the whole picture."

After the starters are chosen, none of the assistant coaches likely have more to say about filling out the roster than special-teams coach Jeff Rodgers.

"That's what it is," said linebacker Wesley Woodyard, who made the Broncos as an undrafted rookie in 2008 and has been with the team since. "Guys have to know, you may not have done it in college because you were big time, but you're doing it here or they will get somebody who will."

There also is the need to bridge the gap between the personnel side of the team, which may lean toward youth with plenty of athletic potential, and the coaching staff, which may prefer proven veterans who don't need as much guidance.

"Coaches always want guys who know what they're doing," Fox said. "But sometimes there's an ability level that might surpass a guy who knows what he's doing. At the end of the day, you're trying to find the best and blend the two together."

But the evaluation doesn't end Friday. "Hey, I tell them all the time in the team meetings, it's important to get one of those seats, but it's more important to keep one," Fox said.

Not all kids who play baseball are uniformed with fancy script across their chests, traveling to $1,000 instructional camps and drilled how to properly hit the cut-off man. Some kids just play to play.